Month: December 2014

After about a week I don’t remember my New Year’s Resolutions.

I am going out on a limb and say I believe I share this with most humans!

I have come up with a new thought. I have been working on a masters degree using the snail approach. I still have one more year! I can’t explain it, being over a century in age but there is something that awakens my soul every September and every January which stirs me into anticipation that something new is about to begin!

This is why New Year’s Resolutions are supposed to work at this time, right? The new year! New changes, new adventures, new beginnings…

So I am taking the whole New Year’s thing in the approach of January 1 as being the BIG REGISTRATION TIME in the University of LIFE courses that all of us must complete just by simply being alive. (The snail approach in life’s great big education)

We all “get”to bear those “General Ed” courses which keep popping up and often take a life time to complete.

Then depending on what the Master professor–God, feels we need to specialize in we are offered, sometimes even surprised, with courses which stretch us, change us, and sometimes even feel they are offered to create great pains or even kill us.

But when you think of life this way it makes you think about other people a little differently. “Oh, yikes, they have to begin that course this year on cancer, or dealing with losses, or inferiority about medical treatment appearance. I hate all the painful courses offered in Life’s University even though they are necessary for us to graduate!

BUT, don’t forget, Life’s University also offers the infamous free-choice classes which we all gravitate to in school because, hopefully, we can get a good grade in them along with possibly turning out to be fun! You know the ones–

THE ELECTIVES!!!!!!!

That badminton course or Foods 101 which when scheduled in allows us to look forward to that “fun” hour during our week when we can let down a little and relax and not have to take “school” so seriously for a few minutes.

This is what all this chatter is about for my New Year’s Resolution. I am going to register for an elective course this January. I haven’t spent time yet looking through the University of Life’s course catalog, but when I do, I will let you know what I got.

So, think of January as a new semester beginning. The GE’s and God’s personalized courses will always be required to pass.

Last year at this time everyone was bustling with the Christmas rush but I felt I was on a conveyor belt being moved by the push of the season, going through the motions but my head thinking of one thing.

I remember a time so vividly holding my fresh new babies in my arms close to the lighted Christmas tree in the quiet moment of an evening feeling a swell of emotion knowing all the wonderful years of Christmas celebrations were ahead.

But what about the other thought. The thought that I was trying to push far from my mind but kept resurfacing. This would be my mother’s last Christmas. The last Christmas! I remember rubbing her feeble hand, my heart breaking. NO! I don’t want it to be! This woman who lived the Christmas spirit every single day of her life. How awful to think she had to leave the world and not have Christmas ever again! This thought troubled me greatly.

But it came true. It was her last…

This Christmas I am squeezing on so tightly so it won’t go away like so many things in my life have done this past year. I have lived 2014 numb and heart broken but I am determined not to during Christmas time; for my husband and kids,…for Santa Claus… and for mom! It is my mother’s spirit I feel in everything I do, in everything I think of. I sometimes imagine she is standing next to me as I move along in a hurry trying to do all the things I expect of myself to do for the season. I think she is trying to whisper to me to slow down and to enjoy what is most important; family.

But just recently, I know she whispered something new to me.

Something wonderful!

Something I take as my choicest Christmas gift.

“My Darling Girl!” I can hear the words pass my ears and travel deep inside my soul. “There is no such thing as a last Christmas! Christmas began in Heaven! Christmas is celebrated even grander in heaven than on earth. The Angels sing! All creations celebrate this blessed event. A precious gift was given by our Father in Heaven to bless ALL of His children. Jesus Christ was born! That is why the earth feels holy at this time. That is the true miracle of Christmas. It is the memory of LOVE by our HEAVENLY FATHER!”

I can hear her say, “Daddy and I are celebrating right along with you. Listen and feel with your heart, and you will know we are close by. Very very close…My big ‘ole arms are hugging you tight!”